INTP 5w6 Characters

Oppenheimer is an intellectual genius who mans the team that develops the atom bomb, and he very much is focused on ensuring the quality of their collaborative effort. He starts out as a professor of advanced theories, who easily shreds arguments he feel hold no weight, and who points out how irrational it is to get personally involved in various parties of thought. He is able to put aside his personal dislike of certain people, to work with them toward his goal, and to debate and allow others to bring different ideas to the table. If he’s wrong, he recognizes and reorganizes his thinking. But his personal decisions devalue emotions; he has trouble with his lover, because he decides things without her involvement, and then is intolerant of her suicidal appeals; he gets a married woman pregnant and then marries her, then cheats on her, and has no shame in outlining his affair when defending his reputation (his wife feels that he allows himself to be ‘stripped naked’ and shares his exploits with everyone). Oppenheimer prefers not to theorize in areas in which he has no data; he doesn’t want to think too seriously about the potential fallout of the bomb until they collect more evidence and do testing. It’s only after the bomb goes off (and he rules out it eradicating humanity by the radiation cloud it creates refusing to dissipate) that he becomes more critical of the process and for dropping it on Japan. His reasons for doing it are logical (it seems to be the only way to stop the Japanese) and he doesn’t allow his feelings to intrude, but he also experiences intense, unexpected emotions and guilt periodically through the story (imagining people being torn apart by the bomb). He shows low Fe in the scene in which he rouses people with a speech and enjoys getting them on the same emotional level, even though he himself is disconnected from the experience (feeling distracted by the tomb, his visions of destruction, and even putting his foot in a burned-out body’s chest cavity). He is both meticulous in his work and methodical in his details, while still being open to various interpretations, approaches, and theories. Because an INTJ wrote him (Christopher Nolan), he does have shades of INTJ in him, but ultimately, his thinking is less Ni than it is Ne. It’s expansive, and he does not consider what impact his involvement with a communist lover would have on his future career in the way an INTJ would.

Enneagram: 5w6

Oppenheimer is very specifically focused in his own little field of interest, and has gathered a bunch of fellow scientists around him who can also contribute meaningful and original ideas. He has a detachment that others find baffling at times, but also dips in and out of his own super-ego thoughts about the morality and ethics of what they are doing. He has an affair, then cuts off his girlfriend and moves on from her, without being able to consider the emotional ramifications of this. He does not see why his relationships with people of communist sympathies should factor into what people think about him, nor does he want to stop them from having their own set of views and the right to express them. His ability to be neutral and detached allows him to be friends with people who disagree with one another, provided they bring something intellectual to the table for him to think about—and he often thinks about what they are doing, the ramifications of it, the moral implications of it, and what might happen as a result from it. At one point, he is telling on a fellow scientist whom he suspects might be involved in communism, but he refuses to name names or give specific details “in case he might be innocent.” Several times, Oppenheimer makes strident super-ego judgments about himself, his work, and his wife’s behavior, saying at one point that they are “terrible” parents and “selfish” people who ought not to be looking after children. He is apologetic about taking up too much space with his kids, and needing his brother and his wife to look after the baby after Kitty loses all interest in it. He also wants to get along with his peers and keep things pleasant with them, and to benefit from their knowledge and expertise, as he surrounds himself with intelligent people who can stay focused on the task at hand.